Personal Journal 7 May.3~May.9

“Oh My! Is It Real?”

Today, April 20th, is the day for the outcome of “Caves 4th Annual English Book Review Contest”. In 8:00p.m., with my hand sweating, my heart thumping, and my head spinning, I check the result. On the top of the college advanced group, I saw my name. My brain was in a whirl. It just couldn’t be. I glimpsed at the result once again. “Oh my gosh! Is it real?” I couldn’t believe what I saw. “I got the first place!” I screamed to Alfee on the phone.

It’s never an easy job for me to write to clarify my thoughts and feelings. That is part of the reason I used to be fear of writing. My inner self have a cognition that writing is never going to be my strong suite. So when Dr. Chen asked whether I want to join the Caves Book Review Contest at the end of last semester, I hesitated. I don’t have any confidence in myself. But Thomas J. Watson, head of IBM, once said, “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” I hope to improve the weakest part of my English ability. Therefore, I decided to make an attempt. I thought I should at least give myself a chance. After all, everything is hard before it gets easy. Having chosen the book, “Night Without End”, for the contest, the journey to an unexpected accomplishment began.

The writing of the book review was torture. I finished the book early. But it took me so long a time to think about the content. The skills Dr. Chen taught in the composition class seemed useless, for my train of thought was in chaos. I searched every information I could get form the internet, trying to clarify my reflection on “Night Without End”. Whenever sentences popped up in my head, I wrote them down, although they didn’t make sense to me at all. At last, combining all that I squeezed out from my brain, I finished the ugly book review. What a suffering! Since Dr. Chen was abroad at the time, I turned to Dr. Chang for help. The result was a bit terrible. She said I couldn’t give a clear idea why and what did the book impressed me so much. At that time, I have almost given up hope for joining the contest. But I am not a quitter. Despite the setbacks, I persevered in revising my crappy work. I rethought over and over again. With the company of my good friend in Chiayi University, I finished the revision. On March 20th, 3:30a.m., I clicked and sent it.

The process of writing a good book review is actually a transition of trial and error. It requires repetitive meditation. Today I rejoiced to know I got the satisfying result. But the greatest reward is to have stuck to my goal— to give myself a chance for improvement.